SUSTAINING PATRIARCHY? A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT - DIVA
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Master thesis in Sustainable Development 2020/37
Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling
Sustaining Patriarchy?
A Critical Discourse Analysis of
Sustainable Urban Development
Alexandra Wallace
DE P AR TME NT OF
E A RTH S CIE N CE S
INSTITUTIONEN FÖR
GEOVETENSKAPERMaster thesis in Sustainable Development 2020/37
Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling
Sustaining Patriarchy?
A Critical Discourse Analysis of
Sustainable Urban Development
Alexandra Wallace
Supervisor: Irene Molina
Subject Reviewer: Karin GrundströmCopyright © Alexandra Wallace and the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Published at Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University (www.geo.uu.se), Uppsala, 2020
Content
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Research Questions and Aim ....................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Structure ....................................................................................................................................... 2
2 Background ................................................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 2
2.1.1 Gender and UN Agendas .......................................................................................................... 2
2.1.2 Gender and Urban Geography .................................................................................................. 4
2.2 Key Concepts and Theory ........................................................................................................... 4
2.2.1 Gender and Sexuality ................................................................................................................ 4
2.2.2 Intersectional Feminist Theory ................................................................................................. 5
2.2.3 Otherness .................................................................................................................................. 5
3 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis ......................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Selection of Texts ........................................................................................................................ 6
4 Results ............................................................................................................................................ 8
4.1 UN................................................................................................................................................ 8
4.2 Sweden....................................................................................................................................... 10
4.3 Stockholm .................................................................................................................................. 12
5 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 16
5.1 Similarities Across Levels ......................................................................................................... 16
5.2 Differences Between Levels ...................................................................................................... 17
5.3 (Re)producing Hierarchies......................................................................................................... 18
6 Summary and Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 18
7 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... 19
8 References.................................................................................................................................... 20
9 Appendix 1: Swedish Text with Translations .......................................................................... 22
iiSustaining Patriarchy? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Urban
Sustainable Development
ALEXANDRA WALLACE
Wallace, A., 2020: Sustaining Patriarchy? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Urban Sustainable Development.
Master thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No. 2020/37, 25 pp, 30ECTS/hp
Abstract: The United Nations (UN) has implemented a policy of gender mainstreaming in their agendas for
both sustainable development and urban development with the aim of improving gender equity in member states
through all of the organization’s work. However, many scholars have criticized the UN’s incorporation of
gender in these agendas for lacking systemic and coordinated policy schemes that are capable of ensuring
gender equity. The majority of these analyses were performed shortly after the agendas’ introductions. In this
thesis, I return to these agendas a few years after their implementation to examine the discourses of gender in
urban sustainability that they contain and consider whether these discourses are or are not reflected in the
national and local sustainable urban development agendas of one member state, Sweden, and its largest city,
Stockholm. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used to identify such gendered discourses and determine
whether the ideologies they reflect are or are not contributing to the agendas’ stated aim to achieve gender
equity. Findings show that there are both significant similarities and differences between discourses at all levels,
with different degrees of both reinforcement of and opposition to status quo gender hierarchy at each level.
Agendas at the national and local levels showed more evidence of anti-hierarchical ideology than the
international level, suggesting that the gender equity work of member states need not be constrained by the
shortcomings of the UN approach.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Urban Planning, Feminist Geography, Critical Discourse Analysis,
Agenda 2030, New Urban Agenda
Alexandra Wallace, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE- 752 36 Uppsala,
Sweden
iiiSustaining Patriarchy? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Urban
Sustainable Development
ALEXANDRA WALLACE
Wallace, A., 2020: Sustaining Patriarchy? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Urban Sustainable Development.
Master thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No. 2020/37, 25 pp, 30ECTS/hp
Summary: The United Nations (UN) has incorporated a gendered perspective into their agendas for both
sustainable development and urban development with the aim of improving gender equity in member states
through all facets of the organization’s work. However, many scholars have criticized the UN’s incorporation of
gender in these agendas, citing a lack of systemic and coordinated policy schemes that are capable of ensuring
gender equity. The majority of these analyses were performed shortly after the agendas’ introductions. In this
thesis, I return to these agendas a few years after their implementation to examine the ways in which gender
equity is framed by them and consider whether the national and local sustainable urban development agendas of
one member state, Sweden, and its largest city, Stockholm, do or do not mirror the discourse of the UN agendas.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used to identify such gendered discourses and determine whether the
ideologies they reflect are or are not contributing to the agendas’ stated aim to achieve gender equity. Findings
show that there are both significant similarities and differences between discourses at all levels, with different
degrees of both reinforcement of and opposition to status quo gender hierarchy at each level. Agendas at the
national and local levels showed more evidence of anti-hierarchical ideology than the international level,
suggesting that the gender equity work of member states need not be constrained by the shortcomings of the UN
approach.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Urban Planning, Feminist Geography, Critical Discourse Analysis,
Agenda 2030, New Urban Agenda
Alexandra Wallace, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE- 752 36 Uppsala,
Sweden
iv1. Introduction a coordinated scheme of meaningful policies
that balance human rights and gender equity
At the international level, conceptions of targets with planetary boundaries. Both
sustainable development are greatly influenced scholars highlight the predominance of an
by the programs and publications of the United economistic rationale for pursuing gender
Nations (UN). By officially adopting a UN equity in Agenda 2030, as opposed to an
agenda, member states implicitly accept the approach based on the inherent justice of
UN’s problematizations of sustainable ending gendered oppression.
development challenges. Of course, since the
While much has been written on the
UN is organized by its member states, the
shortcomings of Agenda 2030’s treatment of
agendas it produces can also be said to be
gender equity, very little of this analysis has
shaped by the agendas of its member states.
been directed at elements of Agenda 2030
This dialectical relation-- which is to say,
relating to urban sustainability. This is largely
mutual constitution-- between the UN and its
due to the fact that Agenda 2030 itself says
members bears on more than just explicit
very little about gender in the sections that
development agendas. Discourses and social
focus on urban sustainability. The lack of
structures are also established and reinforced
detail in this area is likely due to the fact that
through this process. As such, features of UN
Agenda 2030 was developed in advance of,
development agendas subtly influence the very
and in anticipation of, the United Nations
meanings of ‘sustainability’ and
Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
‘development’ held by member states and vice
Development. This conference, commonly
versa, enforcing a hegemonic set of
known as Habitat III, culminated in the
assumptions, strategies, and ‘rules of the
development of a dedicated agenda for
game’ for sustainable development.
sustainable urban development called the New
The UN’s current active agenda for Urban Agenda. Just as Agenda 2030 has
sustainable development is the 2030 Agenda received much attention from development
for Sustainable Development (commonly scholars, the New Urban Agenda has been
shortened as Agenda 2030) (UN General heavily studied by planning and urban
Assembly 2015), an initiative centered around geography scholars since its introduction.
the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
The current study connects these two lines of
(SDGs). The SDGs were developed as
research, using critical discourse analysis
successor to the Millennium Development
(CDA) to identify ways that gendered and
Goals (MDGs), responding to criticism of the
sexual hierarchies are (re)produced within the
MDGs by developing a more extensive set of
urban sustainability agenda of the UN. The
goals for both the eradication of poverty and
same type of analysis is then performed on the
response to climate change. One very
urban development agendas of a UN member
noticeable shift in the UN development agenda
state, Sweden, and a Swedish city, Stockholm.
is an increasing emphasis on gender equity, as
I conclude with a discussion of the ways that
evidenced by both a dedicated goal for gender
gendered and sexual hierarchies are reinforced
equality and gendered indicators for other
and resisted through the discourse features of
goals among the SDGs.
agendas at each of these geographic scales,
Though a growing emphasis on gender in with an eye to dialectical relationships
sustainable development discourse may seem between the levels.
like a success for those who criticized the
Sweden was selected for analysis for two
MDGs’ superficial treatment of gender equity,
reasons. On the one hand, Sweden is often
feminist scholars remain critical of the ways
lauded as an example of successful
that gender has been incorporated into the
implementation of gender equity in public
SDGs. Carant (2017) finds that the UN’s
policy. On the other, the Swedish
methods of gathering feedback and integrating
government’s enthusiastic adoption of the
that feedback into the SDGs privileged the
SDGs-- evidenced by the government’s web
perspectives and needs of less vulnerable
page devoted to Agenda 2030 and appointment
women, largely in wealthier countries. Koehler
of a national coordinator for Agenda 2030
(2016) concludes that the SDGs fail to deliver
1(Government Offices of Sweden 2020)-- 2. Background
suggests a lack of critical feminist analysis of
the goals. The current research will explore This chapter is divided into two sections. The
this apparent contradiction. first reviews the two areas of research that this
study aims to connect, which are feminist
Stockholm was selected for analysis due to its
criticism of UN agendas and feminist urban
status as the largest city in the country and its
geography. The second provides an overview
active role in supporting sustainability-focused
of key concepts and theories which are used to
urban development projects. The city sees
interpret the findings of the analysis which
itself as “a role model for others” in the field
follows.
of sustainability (Stadsledningskontoret 2013),
and because of this, many of its sustainability-
oriented building and development projects are 2.1 Literature Review
very thoroughly and publicly documented.
This review provides an overview of the two
Thus, there is an ample body of texts to draw
streams of critical scholarship that the current
on to characterize Stockholm’s prevailing
research aims to connect.
urban sustainability discourses.
2.1.1 Gender and UN Agendas
1.1 Research Questions and
Aim The MDGs were the UN’s first attempt to
develop a set of universal goals that would
This study is positioned at the intersection of represent meaningful improvements in quality
sustainable development, urban geography, of life for the world’s poorest people. From
and critical feminist theory. Its aim is to their beginning, the MDGs were criticized for
identify ways that dominant discourses of their treatment of gender. While one of the
urban sustainability fail to overcome or MDGs was to “promote gender equality and
reinforce gendered and sexual hierarchies. empower women” (United Nations n.d.), the
This aim is represented by the following agenda lacked analysis of the interdependent
research question: dynamics of gender and poverty. Thus, the
scheme failed to identify strong points of
How do dominant discourses of urban potential intervention that could improve
sustainability reflect and (re)produce outcomes in both gender equity and material
gendered and sexual power hierarchies wellbeing, as well as potential conflicts
at the international, national, and local between the goals.
levels?
In response to this line of critique, an attempt
1.2 Structure was made to incorporate a gendered
perspective in the approach to all SDGs.
The second chapter of this thesis reviews prior However, many scholars have found both the
scholarship on topics related to the current UN’s process and the resulting agenda to fall
study. It also provides descriptions of the short of creating an integrated and actionable
concepts and theories that are used to interpret policy package for gender-informed
the findings of analysis. Chapter three sustainable development.
describes the specific CDA approach used in
this study and gives the rationale for selection Some major weaknesses of the UN’s process
of the analyzed texts. In chapter four, findings of gathering feedback on the MDGs and
of analysis are presented for each text at each integrating criticism to improve the efficacy of
geographical level, and in chapter five, these the SDGs are identified by Carant (2017). The
results are interpreted and discussed. Finally, UN’s main channel for soliciting public input
section six presents a summary of the research, on the formation of the SDGs was A Million
conclusions, and opportunities for further Voices: The World We Want, a report based on
research. consultations conducted in 88 countries and
with 11 thematic focus groups (United Nations
Development Group 2013). The method of
selecting participants for that process was
2never revealed, so that document cannot be groups have equal conditions and access to
assumed to be representative of the global power. A welfarist approach is a paternalistic
population. approach, assigning agency to the dominant
group and legitimizing their dominance in
In addition to A Million Voices, two online agenda-setting while positioning the welfarist
tools were used to engage the public in the group as passive beneficiaries, withholding
process of creating the SDGs. Since women agency and self-determination from them. A
are overrepresented among the very poor, the transformational approach demands not just
fact that public engagement centered on online equality of conditions, or even equality of
feedback actively marginalized the voices of representation in hierarchical institutions, but a
the very poorest and disproportionately restructuring of institutions and social
affected women. In fact, the data gathered by practices such that all are afforded self-
one of these tools shows that the sampled determination.
respondents tended to have higher education
levels than the world population, implying an While the current research draws heavily on
exclusion of the poor from influencing the this dichotomy of welfarist and
UN’s agenda on poverty. transformational approaches, there is one
element of Moser’s interpretation which is
Given the shortcomings of the process by rejected. Moser argues that a transformational
which the SDGs incorporated input, especially approach to gender equity can be achieved
pertaining to women and the world’s poorest through women’s accumulation of assets and
people, it is perhaps unsurprising that scholars resources. This approach may seem
also find the policy implications of the SDGs transformational if gender equity is taken as an
to be lacking. From an analysis of the SDGs’ isolated vector of oppression, but an
treatment of gender equity and planetary intersectional perspective reveals it to be what
boundaries, Koehler (2016) concludes that the bell hooks (1984, p. 9) calls “the co-optation
SDGs don’t constitute a meaningful, of feminist struggle...by the ideology of liberal
coordinated set of policies for equity and individualism.” She goes on to say:
ecological sustainability. The author compares
the SDGs to other international conventions Bourgeois white women active in
with similar aims and finds that others, feminist movement presented their
especially the 1994 International Conference struggle to obtain power in the terms
on Population and Development Programme set by the existing social structure as a
of Action, do represent robust, coordinated necessary prerequisite for successful
policy programs, illustrating that it is possible feminist struggle. Their suggestion
to achieve comprehensive “soft law” type that they should first obtain money
conventions through multinational and power so as to work more
collaboration. effectively for liberation had little
appeal for poor and/or non-white
Similar feminist criticisms have been made of women. It had tremendous appeal for
the New Urban Agenda. Moser (2017) ruling groups of white males who
analyzed the approaches to gender were not threatened by women in
mainstreaming taken in consecutive drafts of feminist movement validating the
the agenda, finding that an initial status quo.
transformational approach was downgraded
through the revision process to result in a Many participants in feminist
welfarist approach in the final version of the movement sincerely believed that
agenda. As Moser uses the term, a welfarist women were different from men and
approach is one in which a certain group is would exercise power differently.
considered to be vulnerable and in need of They had been socialized to accept a
special accommodation from others. Where a sexist ideology that stressed such
welfarist approach aims to alleviate some difference, and feminist ideology
symptoms of a group’s subordinated position reaffirmed the primacy of these
in a hierarchy, a transformational approach differences. (Ibid. p. 86)
aims to dismantle the hierarchy so that all
3This research is aligned with hooks’ view that to patterns of racialized segregation in
women’s capitalist accumulation of wealth is Swedish cities, producing a situation in which
not a transformational strategy for the benefit racialized women were and continue to be
of all women but simply an inversion of more impacted than ethnically Swedish
gender roles within existing capitalist relations women by the masculinist planning of the
for the benefit of already class-privileged post-war era. This illustrates the power of a
women. Thus, some women may gain well-intentioned agenda for urban
individual access to power via resources, but development to have both intentional and
they will do so at the expense of other women, unintentional impacts on social relations which
and they will reinforce gender essentialist and are inequitable, oppressive, and long-lasting.
economically exploitative ideologies in doing
so. 2.2 Key Concepts and
2.1.2 Gender and Urban Theory
Geography The analysis contained in this study draws on
a range of interdisciplinary and critical
Much has been written on the relationships traditions. The following subsections define
between gender, power, and urban space in the and discuss the core concepts and theories that
field of human geography. Historically, studies inform this work, providing a brief
of gender in cities have presumed that cities of introduction to the perspectives assumed
the Global South and Global North represent within this paper.
distinct spatial categories, subject to different
forces and having different needs. Based on 2.2.1 Gender and Sexuality
this divide, feminist urban geography
developed two bodies of literature, one In both colloquial and academic use, the terms
focused on the Global South and one on the “gender” and “sex” can have various,
Global North, with little interaction between contested, sometimes overlapping meanings.
these fields of scholarship (Peake 2020, p. Thus, it is important to specify how each term
282). is defined and how the two are differentiated
for the purposes of this paper.
However, both fields are considered relevant
to the current study for two reasons. First, in Following the definition of Jackson (2004, p.
accordance with postcolonial urban theory, the 16), gender here refers to a hierarchical
idea that the Global North and Global South categorization of people which is encoded in
are distinct categories is rejected, as this both social institutions and social practices.
conception stems from racist, colonialist The traditional western gender system consists
notions of geography (Ibid.). Second, the UN of the categories “man” and “woman,”
conventions analyzed in this study present wherein men are allotted the dominant and
sustainable development goals and indicators women the subjugated hierarchical position.
that are intended to be applied by all of the
adopting member states, regardless of While this binary gender power relation is
economic conditions. central to feminist criticism, analysis of
gendered dynamics alone cannot fully account
In the geographic literature as in sustainable for individuals’ positionality in contexts of
development, there is a tradition of feminist relative social power. This idea will be
critique of gender bias in urban spaces expanded upon in section 2.2.2 Intersectional
resulting from planning and policy decisions. Feminist Theory. What’s more, the western
In a Swedish context, Molina (2018) reviews binary gender tradition is only one example of
post-World War II housing policy and finds a socially constructed gender system. It does
that the “family friendly” planning of the era not necessitate the existence of a gender
presupposed gendered roles in the household system or preclude the existence of other
and labor market, reifying these gendered gender categories and systems.
differences through the built environment.
Since the implementation of such plans, Again, following Jackson’s (2004, p. 17)
international and domestic migration have led definition, sex here refers exclusively to erotic
4activity. This excludes the common alternate oppression cannot be neatly attributed to
usage of the term which refers to anatomical single aspects of an individual’s identity or
sexes. Thus, the term sexual hierarchy as used positionality.
in this paper refers to the hierarchical
categorization of people according to their For the purposes of this paper, intersectional
sexual behaviors. Heteronormativity is the theory provides the premise that oppression
specific form of sexual hierarchy in a western based on gender cannot be adequately
context (Ibid.). understood in isolation from other vectors of
oppression. This idea informs the critical
2.2.2 Intersectional Feminist reading of the gendered aspects of mainstream
discourses of urban sustainability.
Theory
The agenda of post-World War II feminism in 2.2.3 Otherness
the United States was dominated by the
Inherent in hierarchy is a scheme of social
concerns and needs of middle- and upper-class
categories, based on real or imagined
white women, yet the movement presumed to
differences, to which people can be assigned,
speak to some universal experience of
and of which at least one category is afforded
womanhood. In response, Black feminists
more power and privileges than others.
criticized the movement not just for being
Otherness is the quality of being excluded
myopic and exclusionary, but for
from the privileged group, and thus excluded
misunderstanding the ways that patriarchy
from access to the power held by that group,
interacts with other oppressive institutions.
based on stigmatization of the difference(s)
This discourse, exemplified by the writings of
that mark one as Other. It is a discursive
bell hooks (1984) and Audre Lorde (1984),
means by which the privileged group asserts
changed the way many fellow activists and
their particular norms and narratives to justify
academics conceptualize the workings of
their own oppressive position.
patriarchy and the role of feminism, laying the
ideological groundwork for what would later Staszak (2009) makes clear the distinction
be called intersectional feminism. that, “to state it naïvely, difference belongs to
the realm of fact and otherness belongs to the
The term “intersectionality” itself was coined
realm of discourse.” For example, skin color
by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989).
corresponds to difference, while race
Crenshaw argued that single-axis analyses of
corresponds to Otherness. The function of
oppression fail to completely account for the
Othering is to reinforce the dominance of the
experiences of people subject to multiple axes
in-group and the devaluation of Others, to
of oppression, the impact of which is more
maintain the unequal distribution of power
complex than the simple sum of oppression
between groups by emphasizing the difference
one plus oppression two. Crenshaw’s work
that defines the categories.
translated the political concept of
intersectionality into academic theory and Othering can be quite subtle in practice. The
provided activists with a succinct name for the category of “Other” is defined by its lack of
concept. whatever quality defines the in-group, yet that
in-group-defining quality is often unstated;
Since then, intersectional analysis has been
only its absence is explicitly marked in the act
accepted as imperative in many feminist
of Othering, and an absence of Othering
activist and academic spheres. It is now
means that the in-group is presumed. Take for
commonly acknowledged that women are not
example the titles of the FIFA World Cup and
a monolithic group, that no specific set of
the FIFA Women’s World Cup; the fact that
experiences can be said to define womanhood,
men are not explicitly named in the title of
and that the same is true for any category or
their tournament implies that maleness is
identity. It is also core to intersectional
assumed unless otherwise marked. That male
feminist analysis to include race, class,
athletes are assigned more social value than
sexuality, ability, and other dimensions of
female athletes is reflected in the well-
access to power in analyses of gendered
documented gender pay gap for FIFA players.
oppression, since lived experiences of
5In this paper, “Other” and derivative terms are feminist CDA praxis incorporated into this
capitalized to distinguish references to the thesis include denaturalization of the western
concept described here from ordinary uses of binary gender system and acknowledgment of
the word “other.” the complexity of gendered power relations.
3. Methods Core to CDA is its requirement of a socially
emancipatory aim (Titscher & Jenner 2000, p.
This section presents a summary of the 151). As stated in section 1.1 Research
particular approach to CDA used in this Questions and Aim, the motivation of this
research and offers a rationale for the selection thesis is to identify ways that dominant
of each analyzed text. discourses of urban sustainability reinforce or
fail to overcome gendered and sexual
3.1 Critical Discourse hierarchies. The point of identifying such
features is to provide an example for
Analysis policymakers of how subtle, often unconscious
biases can be encoded in urban policy, so that
The analysis performed in this study follows they may develop a critical awareness of their
the approach to CDA developed by Norman own biases and their influence in their own
Fairclough (2013). Within this approach, work.
language is theorized as both a representation
of social practice and an instance of social Finally, as Lazar (2007) says, “critical praxis-
practice in itself, as a site of the “production oriented research...cannot and does not pretend
and reproduction of [social] processes and to adopt a neutral stance.” The political nature
structures” (Machin & Mayr 2012, p. 24). of this research is inherent in its method, and
Thus, the method is well suited to identifying its biases are overt. I have made this decision
ideological features implicit in the practice of with an eye to the feminist critique of
sustainable urban development. scientific “objectivity” or “neutrality” as itself
a social construct, lacking reflexive awareness
For this study, CDA was performed on texts of the subjectivities in its construction. Thus,
which were developed by the UN, the as Lazar suggests, critical research could be
government of Sweden, and Stockholm city said to be closer to objectivity than an
offices as agendas for sustainable urban approach which naively assumes objectivity in
development. Excerpts from these texts with that critical research names and weighs the
explicitly gendered and sexual content were influences of social factors like power
selected for analysis. Keywords for this relations and ideology where the “objective”
selection include “gender,” “sex,” “women,” perspective presumes them.
“men,” “girls,” “boys,” and “LGBTQ” in
English, and “genus,” “kön,” “kvinnor,”
“män,” “tjejer,” “killar,” “flickor,” “pojkar,”
3.2 Selection of Texts
and “HBTQ” in Swedish. Analysis of the As the self-described general agenda for
social practices constituted by and reflected in sustainable development of the UN, Agenda
the diction and syntax of these excerpts 2030 serves as a natural starting point for
followed the principles of analysis outlined in analysis of dominant discourses of sustainable
Machin & Mayr (2012). urban development at the international level.
Within Agenda 2030, however, the treatment
Building on Fairclough’s method, this study
of urban sustainability overall is quite brief
adopts the explicitly feminist approach to
and general and includes only two passing
CDA articulated by Lazar (2007). Lazar points
references to gender in urban settings. This
out that analysis of gender does not necessarily
lack of detail on urban sustainability goals and
imply a feminist aim and suggests that a more
principles is likely due in part to the fact that
systematic integration of feminist theory and
Agenda 2030 was developed in advance of,
CDA praxis can both strengthen the practice of
and in anticipation of, the United Nations
CDA by decentering the currently
Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
predominant perspectives of straight white
Development, or Habitat III. The
men and provide feminist scholars with a
acknowledgment and anticipation of this
powerful analytical method. Elements of
6conference is stated overtly within the text of growth and development leading up to the year
Agenda 2030 (UN General Assembly 2015, 2040. Though not a policy document itself, it
art. 34). serves as a guide for city planning and policy,
an idealized future to which current policy and
The agenda for sustainable urban development programs should lead. It is also explicitly
produced at the United Nations Conference on named as a foundation of the social
Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, sustainability strategy in the project Fokus
known as the New Urban Agenda (United Skärholmen. The latter document,
Nations 2017), contains much more detail on “Skillnadernas Stockholm,” is the inaugural
the UN’s approach to urban planning and report of the Commission for a Socially
incorporation of gendered perspectives in that Sustainable Stockholm, a city government
work. Thus, both texts are taken as body for the promotion of social equity. This
representative of the discourses invoked in the document, which is primarily a report on
UN’s conception of sustainable development quality of life indicators among different
in general, but discourses on gender in urban social groups at the time of the commission’s
sustainability are present only in the New establishment, is also explicitly named as an
Urban Agenda (United Nations 2017). influence on the social sustainability strategy
of the project Fokus Skärholmen.
At the national level, the primary text
representing the Swedish government’s Two documents were identified as
current strategy for sustainable urban representations of the approach to social
development is “Strategi för Levande städer – sustainability for urban development in the
politik för en hållbar stadsutveckling” (English project Fokus Skärholmen. The first, “Lokalt
title: “Strategy for living cities – policy for a utvecklingsprogram för Skärholmens
sustainable urban development”) (Government stadsdelsnämnd” (English title: “Local
Offices of Sweden 2018). Much like the development program for Skärholmen city
selected international texts, this document was district”) (Stockholms Stad 2016), is based on
explicitly developed by Sweden’s national “Vision 2040” and “Skillnadernas
government to represent the state’s vision of Stockholm”. This document synthesizes city-
sustainable urban development. This makes it level strategy and research with more granular,
an ideal example of the discourses invoked in district-level data to create a district
urban sustainability and gender equity in urban development plan. The second text, “Social
settings at the national level in Sweden. hållbarhet i Fokus Skärholmen-Nycklar för det
Furthermore, the text explicitly references lokala behovet” (English title: “Social
both Agenda 2030 and New Urban Agenda as sustainability in Fokus Skärholmen- Keys for
influences on the development of its policies, local needs”) (Skärholmens
affirming the Swedish government’s Stadsdelsförvaltning 2017), synthesizes the
commitment to these agendas. top-down findings of “Lokalt
utvecklingsprogram för Skärholmens
Selected texts at the local level can be stadsdelsnämnd” with insights from local
subdivided into Stockholm city-level participation processes in the form of
documents and documents related to Fokus interviews and workshops. This document
Skärholmen, the city’s pilot redevelopment identifies seven themes within the social needs
project for social sustainability within a single
of Skärholmen residents and implies that
city district. meeting these needs should be the goal of the
At the city level, the selected texts are “Vision social sustainability work within the project
2040- Ett Stockholm för alla” (English title: Fokus Skärholmen.
“Vision 2040- A Stockholm for everyone”) All of the Swedish language texts used in this
(Stockholms Stad 2015) and “Skillnadernas research were analyzed in the original
Stockholm- Kommissionen för ett socialt Swedish. To illustrate findings for the general
hållbart Stockholm” (English title: reader, document titles and selected example
“Differences Stockholm- The commission for phrases have been translated into English by
a socially sustainable Stockholm”) the author (see Appendix 1). While in some
(Stadsledningskontoret 2015). The former circumstances, specific discourses may be
document outlines the city’s current vision for
7endemic to the social context of speakers of a training program, not a concrete policy
specific language, that is unlikely to be true in agenda.
this case. Swedish is not one of the languages
in which the selected UN texts were published. Additionally, a close reading of the texts
English proficiency is high in Sweden; reveals not only a dearth of policy
government officials responsible for recommendations, but a failure to define and
incorporating international agreements into problematize the very issues that the agendas
national policy would likely have read the intend to address. For example, in the section
English language versions of UN documents. of Agenda 2030 titled “Our world today”
This assumption is backed by the evidence that which presents the socioeconomic, political,
Swedish reports to the UN on national SDG and ecological context for Agenda 2030,
implementation are published in English gender is mentioned only once, in the sentence
(Government Offices of Sweden 2018b). As “Gender inequality remains a key challenge,”
such, this research presumes that the (UN General Assembly 2015, art. 14). Absent
discourses of sustainable urban development from this formulation are the actors and
of the UN and Sweden share a discursive practices which perpetuate gender inequality.
relationship, regardless of the language the This framing is made possible by positioning
text is written in. “gender inequality” as the grammatical subject
rather than object of the sentence. The term
4. Results “gender inequality” itself is a mild formulation
of what might also be called “oppression” or
Analysis revealed significant differences in the “marginalization”, terms which carry stronger
use of language to represent gender, connotations of active perpetration of
problematize gendered inequities, and frame injustice. Also lexically absent from the text
possible solutions at all three levels of are terms such as “sexism” and “patriarchy,”
analysis. This section reviews the linguistic which could serve to specify the mechanisms
features that characterize each text’s treatment that (re)produce gender inequality. The verb
of gender within sustainable urban “remains” merely acknowledges the existence
development. of inequality, further invisibilizing the forces
that perpetuate it. Finally, the statement that
4.1 UN gender inequality is “a key challenge” gives a
vague impression of consideration of equity
The selected international-level texts, Agenda but neglects to name the people for whom it is
2030 (UN General Assembly 2015) and New a challenge or the harmful impacts of the
Urban Agenda (United Nations 2017), exhibit phenomenon. It may be interpreted as alluding
strikingly similar linguistic features to but does not actually express the normative
throughout. position that inequality itself is unjust. Such
suppression enables the text to project an aura
While the documents present themselves as, of justice and equity-mindedness without
respectively, “a plan of action” (UN General identifying the concrete or functional
Assembly 2015, p. 3) and a set of “principles processes that (re)produce oppression,
and tested practices” (United Nations 2017, p. assigning responsibility, or taking a moral
v), these self-descriptions are mismatched with stance against oppression.
the content of the agendas. Both documents
heavily rely on language that evokes concrete As stated in section 3.2 Selection of Texts,
actions taken to right wrongs, with a profusion New Urban Agenda was the only one of the
of phrases such as “challenge,” “disparities of UN-level documents which dealt directly and
opportunity,” “responsibilities,” “action,” in detail with gender in urban sustainable
“eradicating poverty,” “achieve gender development. The remainder of the results in
equality,” “empower all women and girls,” this section refer to that text exclusively.
“leadership,” and of course “sustainable
The language around gender in the New Urban
development.” Such terms align the texts with
Agenda, through a variety of linguistic
the style of discourse we might expect to see
features, reveals an underlying view of women
in a political campaign speech or executive
as monolithic Other. In the entire text, the
8word “men” appears twice and “boys” once, Iterations of this list of welfarist groups appear
compared to “women,” which appears 22 repeatedly throughout the text, a pattern which
times, and “girls” 13 times. In all three glosses over the different experiences and
instances where men and boys are named, they positionalities these labels represent,
are named simply as part of a dichotomous reinforces their supposed rigid definitions, and
pair, “women and men” or “girls and boys,” establishes all of these groups as Others. The
where no distinction is made between the Othering of these groups reflexively frames
positionality of women and men, and the the voice of the text, the ambiguous “we,” as
meaning of the pair is simply “all people.” the in-group, defined by belonging to none of
Take for example the following: these categories of Others. Given that a group
which includes even just women, children, and
Girls and boys, young women and older adults will by definition represent the
young men are key agents of change majority of the population of any country, the
in creating a better future and when framing of this collection of Others as a subset
empowered they have great potential of the population with non-standard needs is
to advocate on behalf of themselves an ideological assertion; it assumes that the
and their communities. (United needs of the general population are best
Nations 2017, art. 61) represented by the needs of the minority of
people who do not belong to any of the listed
To some readers, the use of gendered language categories of Others.
in this statement might give the impression of
an emancipatory gender equity aim. To others, While the excerpt above may give the
it might read as an assertion of the traditional impression of containing an aim to end
western gender binary, in which all people are injustices, the actual language used, in word
presumed to be represented by the phrase choice and structure, carefully avoids any
“women and men.” In fact, this use of normative claims and allows the reader to
gendered language creates a veneer of project their own values onto the phrase. It
specificity over a general statement, allowing chooses the term “discrimination,” which
the reader to project their own interpretation might be interpreted as value-neutral
onto the statement. This use of superficially differentiation, rather than a more openly
specific language to mask a lack of specificity critical term, such as “injustice,”
in content is characteristic of the text. “marginalization” or “oppression.” It
invisibilizes the people and processes that
Conversely, while “men” and “boys” are (re)produce marginalization using
invoked only as part of the whole of society, nominalization, the presentation of a verb
“women” and “girls” are largely presented in process (“to discriminate”) as a noun
terms of a welfarist category. This is (“discrimination”) so as to obscure agency and
evidenced by statements such as the one responsibility in the (re)production of
below: discrimination.
We recognize the need to give particular This section of the text further obscures the
attention to addressing multiple forms of (re)production of discrimination and avoids
discrimination faced by, inter alia, articulating its own anti-discrimination agenda
women and girls, children and youth, through the use of nested verb processes. The
persons with disabilities, people living grammatical subject of the main clause is
with HIV/AIDS, older persons, “we.” This pronoun has no clear antecedent
indigenous peoples and local nearby within the text. Is it referring to the UN
communities, slum and informal- as a whole, a committee of the UN,
settlement dwellers, homeless people, representatives of member states present at
workers, smallholder farmers and Habitat III, the national governments of
fishers, refugees, returnees, internally member states who adopt the agenda, or some
displaced persons and migrants, other group? The verb in the main clause is
regardless of their migration status. “recognize.” This depicts a poorly defined
(United Nations 2017, art. 20) subject performing a mere mental, perceptive
verb process, far from the implications of
9concrete social change alluded to by the article agency by its syntactic construction, while
as a whole. “The need” is another nominalized “settlements,” a non-person, are granted the
verb process, serving as part of the indirect agency to “achieve gender equality.” Nested
object “...the need to give particular attention clauses again serve to distance the proposed
to...” which effectively distances the subject problems and solutions from any assignment
“we” from the direct object, “addressing of agency and responsibility. The main verb
multiple forms of discrimination.” Who has process of the article is “we envisage.” The
this need? Who will give this particular next verb process in the sentence is
attention? How does giving attention intervene “settlements that achieve gender equality.” As
in the (re)production of marginalization? What mental and relational verb processes,
exactly does “addressing” discrimination respectively, both constructions avoid
entail? Which “multiple forms” of describing what needs to happen on a
discrimination is this article alluding to? All of practical, material or functional level to bring
these questions are unanswered by the text about gender equality.
itself, leaving readers to fill in the blanks with
their own assumptions. In sum, the current agendas for sustainable
development and urban development at the
In other places, the text is relatively more UN level provide ambiguous formulations of
specific in defining the gendered dynamics of problems and solutions related to gender in
urban sustainability and its own agenda for urban settings. Using evocative language with
gender equality. Article 13c provides the most connotations of action and justice and
complete articulation of a vision for gender convoluted syntactic structures that obscure
equality within the text: agency and responsibility, the texts strike an
inspirational tone and give a superficial
We envisage cities and human impression of intervention while providing
settlements that: ...achieve gender very little in the way of meaningful analysis of
equality and empower all women and gendered oppression and the agendas’ relation
girls by ensuring women’s full and to it.
effective participation and equal rights
in all fields and in leadership at all 4.2 Sweden
levels of decision-making, by ensuring
decent work and equal pay for equal The body of the text “Strategi för Levande
work, or work of equal value, for all städer” is 59 pages long and contains only
women and by preventing and eight instances of reference to gender. One
eliminating all forms of instance occurs in the section describing
discrimination, violence and research and development for sustainable
harassment against women and girls in urban development:
private and public spaces… (United
Nations 2017) It is important that strengthened
community building research
This article makes somewhat more specific encompasses a number of scientific
claims about what actions might be taken to areas and approaches, where, among
correct inequality, such as “ensuring...full and others, gender, accessibility, and
effective participation” and “ensuring decent equality perspectives are especially
work and equal pay for equal work.” It also relevant. (Government Offices of
uses “violence” and “harassment,” words with Sweden 2018a, p. 40)
connotations of overt condemnation, to
describe treatment of women. At the same In this brief assertion of the state’s
time, it also uses syntactical features that are commitment to equity-informed policy,
counter to its professed emancipatory aim. “gender” is named separately from “equality,”
Women are positioned as the passive as is “accessibility.” To present these ideas as
beneficiary rather than actors in phrases such items in a list implies that the three are
as “by ensuring decent work...for all women.” separate perspectives. Of course, one can
Though the text professes a vision of gender acknowledge gender or accessibility without
equality, women in this text are still denied having equality as a goal, and there are many
10more forms of equality than just gender and entail. Since this sentence appears in a section
accessibility. This may imply that gender and on social segregation and inequality between
accessibility are considered to be separate different neighborhoods, it may be implied
from the government’s equality work, or it that these differences are unjust, but the text
could imply that gender and accessibility are does not make these implications overt. This
taken into account in more comprehensive careful avoidance of specificity and
ways than simple equality analysis. normativity might indicate an awareness on
the part of the government that gender equity
The remaining seven references to gender in remains a contested area, even in
the text name particular genders in one-to-one contemporary Sweden.
pairs, such as “girls and boys, young women
and young men” (Ibid. p. 55), or compare One place where the text comes close to
different outcomes for different gender groups, articulating a gender equity aim is in the
as in “men who today use public transport to a following:
lesser extent than women,” (Ibid. p. 16). This
phrase comes from the following excerpt: The establishment of a goal for
pedestrian, bicycle and public
The major increases [in pedestrian, transport makes clear the
bicycle, and public transport] should government’s ambition to promote
primarily be possible in those areas of climate-smart transportation without
the country which have good emissions of air pollution with
conditions for accessibility, population negative impacts on people’s health
data and travel patterns. Especially while we get a city environment which
among men who today use public makes it easier for people to meet and
transport to a lesser extent than thrive in the city. It also deals with
women. (Ibid.) development of cities so that they are
for everyone-- children as well as the
Here we see a gendered difference in behavior, elderly, women as men and people
which is use of public transportation, with or without disabilities. (Ibid. p.
presented in the context of a goal, that is to 16)
increase use of public transportation, where
women’s behavior is aligned with the goal and The last sentence in this excerpt seems to
a change in men’s behavior is named as an establish a pattern of pairs of opposites, where
opportunity to achieve the goal. This a marginalized group is said to deserve the
represents a gendered analysis that goes same consideration as the corresponding
beyond women as a welfarist category, privileged group. However, neither children
supporting the interpretation of the statement nor the elderly represent a privileged group, so
on “gender, accessibility, and equality the pattern is undermined. Additionally, an
perspectives” (Ibid. p. 40) as going beyond aspiration to consider “women as men”
simple equality considerations. suggests an androcentric perspective wherein
men are the standard of comparison. The
As in the UN texts, “Strategi för Levande destabilization of the pattern of implied equity
städer” in multiple instances uses a pair of goals along with the androcentric formulation
gendered terms to mean, in effect, “people,” as of equality produces a weak formulation of
in the statement “In groups with lower gender equity.
incomes there are fewer women and men who
have access to cars,” (Ibid. p. 8). Such In another section, the text again gestures at a
formulations obliquely suggest that gendered gender equity aim:
dynamics have been analyzed when in fact the
actual content of the statement is not gendered. A sustainable city plan which creates
security and includes the whole
A similar vague appeal to equity is seen in the population in all areas needs to take
sentence “There are also differences between into account different needs and
women and men, girls and boys within abilities of people, girls and boys,
housing areas,” (Ibid. p. 31). Nowhere does women and men of different ages,
the text specify what these differences might from different backgrounds and with
11different functional abilities. (Ibid. p. of present-day Stockholm should in context be
54) understood as assertions of a normative vision
for Stockholm’s future development. Take the
To its credit, this text doesn’t invisibilize men following:
and boys in the acknowledgment of gender.
However, the gendered pairs “girls and boys, The power of diverse Stockholm
women and men” suggest binary pairs where comes from people's personal choices
all people will fall into one category or the and that everyone is given equivalent
other. In addition to reinforcing a binary conditions. A gender and anti-racist
conception of gender, the phrase “different perspective has been integrated into all
needs and abilities of...women and men” of the city's activities and a purposeful
suggests the gender essentialist idea that all effort to reduce social gaps has made
people of a given gender have the same needs Stockholm a model. (Ibid. p. 24)
and abilities and that the needs and abilities of
men are different than those of women. Past perfect verb phrases such as “has been
Despite the acknowledgment of “different integrated” and reference to the specific equity
ages” and “different backgrounds,” this gender approaches of “gender and anti-racist
essentialist construction of equity is perspective[s]” evoke the style of a progress
incompatible with an intersectional report. The phrases “the power of diverse
perspective since it treats gender groups as Stockholm” and “has made Stockholm a
homogenous. model” strike the tone of marketing copy; one
could imagine the city’s tourism bureau using
The discourse surrounding gender in the same grammatical structure to lure visitors
sustainable urban development at the Swedish with “the charm of historic Stockholm.” The
national level shows some similarities with the combination of these styles has a persuasive
UN level. Both institutions use gendered pairs effect. Where a more overt statement of goals,
such as “women and men” in otherwise strategies, and policy tools might invite a
gender-neutral phrases to simply denote “all critical reading, the use of fiction to depict an
people.” Both also seem to walk a fine line idealized vision of the outcomes of policy and
between implying gender equity as an aim and planning triggers a sort of suspension of
avoiding explicitly normative statements about disbelief in the reader. The form diverts the
gender and equity. In other ways, the Sweden- reader’s attention from the normative
level text shows distinct departures from the construction of what a good future entails and
UN discourse. It avoids welfarist constructions which approaches are able to bring it about.
of equity and assigns genderedness to women
and men equally. Perhaps its most innovative Later in the text, we see the statement:
feature is its conception of gender as a
dimension of analysis that goes beyond simple Stockholm is known as a city where
equality, depicting women not just as an everyone can be who they are,
regardless of gender, transgender
underprivileged and threatened group to be
identity or expression, ethnic
protected.
affiliation, religion or other beliefs,
disability, sexual orientation or age.
4.3 Stockholm (Ibid. p. 24)
Presentation of results of analysis at the The fact that the main clause of the sentence is
Stockholm level will begin with city-level “Stockholm is known” frames this goal in
documents and proceed to district-level terms of the city’s reputation rather than
documents. people’s right to self-expression without
discrimination. A familiar list of welfarist
The document “Vision 2040” (Stockholms
categories is indirectly invoked, as a reader
Stad 2015) is written in the form of a
with Swedish social context instinctively
description of an imagined future Stockholm
knows that men, cisgender people, ethnically
in the year 2040. Due to this creative
Swedish people, nondisabled people, or
approach, statements which, in isolation, seem
heterosexual people are not currently
to be declarative descriptions about the reality
systematically prevented from “be[ing] who
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